Gaming devices with additional awards, typically characterized as bonus or secondary awards, are well known in the gaming industry. One form may be as simple as a progressive award for certain outcomes from a primary game. A “progressive” system is one where a portion of wagers from one or many gaming machines are used to fund a jackpot which is paid out when the player has made the required wager, usually the maximum wager, and obtains the required game outcome. Progressives have been applied to slot machines, video Poker machines and other games, including table games.
Another form of gaming device is one where there is a bonus or secondary game (hereinafter referred to as “bonus” games) or feature which is triggered by one or several outcomes during play of a primary game and which is used to select or display a pre-selected secondary award. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,932 issued December 1998 to Adams and titled “Method of Playing Game and Gaming Games With An Additional Payout Indicator”. In this game, when the player obtains a predetermined, “triggering” outcome in the primary or base game, a bonus game or game opportunity is launched. For example, a bonus wheel or bonus wheel display may be provided which, when prompted, spins to display a secondary award to the player.
Other triggered bonus games include those where the player is provided with bonus selections which, when picked by the player, reveal the award(s) for the bonus feature for the game.
In designing bonus games, gaming designers must calculate the frequency at which the bonus game trigger(s) will be obtained in the base game and, based upon the play of the bonus game, the contribution to the overall payback of the game. That is, if a gaming designer wants a game to have a 92% payback (i.e. theoretically retain 8% of all wagers) the payback contribution from the base game and bonus game must be configured to account for the contribution from the bonus game feature. Another factor which must be considered in the game design calculus is whether or not large awards will be offered in the bonus game feature. It is believed that providing large awards in the bonus game feature is attractive to players. However, if the bonus game feature contribution to the game overall payback is too high, the payback from the base game must be reduced. Reducing the pay back for the base game can be frustrating to the player who does not obtain a bonus game trigger since the player will tend to lose his/her bankroll in short order. If the payback from the base game is to be maintained high (so the player maintains interest in the game), then the frequency at which the secondary game feature is triggered must be reduced. As stated above, if the frequency of obtaining the trigger is low, the player is likely to terminate their gaming session early since he/she has not obtained a triggering outcome. Thus, the game designer is left with decisions and trade-offs in designing the game. Games where the secondary or bonus feature has high awards, requires either reducing the frequency of the trigger for the secondary game or lowering the payback for the base game. If the bonus game is infrequently triggered and the base game has a low payback, a player will lose enthusiasm for the game or run out of money before the bonus game is triggered. In such a circumstance it is likely that the player will not play the game again. Making the secondary game awards small but frequently triggered can lead to a boring game where the bonus game trigger becomes a routine event.
A further drawback is the marrying of the bonus game to a trigger in the base game mandates the trade-offs and compromises set forth above which, in turn, limits the degree of creativity which the gaming designer can utilize in designing a game.
There is a need for a game which can provide a bonus game which is not driven by or triggered from a base game.
There is a need for a game wherein the bonus game can be configured to provide any desired contribution to the game without consideration to the frequency of the player obtaining a base game trigger.